An important part of the marketing process is to understand why a customer or buyer makes a purchase. Without such an understanding, business finds it hard to respond to the customer’s needs and wants.
A market is people or organizations with needs or wants, money to spend, and the willingness to spend it. In the consumer market, the makeup of the population – its distribution and composition – has a major effect on target-market selection. For some products it is useful to analyze population on a regional basis. The major age groups of the population make up another significant basis for analysis – young adults, teenagers, the over-65 group, and so on. The stage of the family life cycle influences the market for many products.
Marketers must be aware of cultural change and of the importance of segmenting the market into subcultures. Large and small reference groups to which we belong, or aspire to belong, also influence our perceptions. Consumers often go through a logical, five-stage process in the course of making a buying decision. First, the unsatisfied need is recognized. Next, the reasonable alternatives are first identified and then evaluated. The actual decision to purchase is then made.
People are different in different parts of the country, and regional differences do exist in product preferences, purchase patterns, product ownership and brand preferences. In addition to obvious regional differences that result from climate and geography, many marketers find that purchase patterns and consumer preferences are influenced by age, ethnic background, cultural influences and other demographic factors. Theoretically, a market opportunity exists any time and any place where is a person or an organization with an unfilled need or want. Realistically, a company’s market opportunity is much more restricted. Consequently, selecting a target market requires an appraisal of the market opportunities available to the organization. A market opportunity analysis involves, first, a study of the various environmental forces that affect a firm’s market program. Then the organization must analyze the three components of the market – people, their buying power, and their willingness to spend. Analysis of the people component involves a study of the geographic distribution and demographic composition of the population.…
